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Health, Armor, and Shield
In Overwatch, 'health '(or hit point, HP) is an important factor in gameplay. Heroes spawn with a limited amount of health, which can be changed under the effect of some weapons and abilities. Some of them can inflict damage, and lower the health. On the other hand, some abilities can be used to replenish the lost health; referred to as healing. Every time a hero's health falls below their remaining 35%, they will gasp deeply in pain, and every time their health goes back above 35%, they will let out a relieved sigh. Furthermore, while their health is under 35%, a blood-smearing red outline appears around the game screen, certain sounds become distorted, and the hero periodically lets out a pained breath. When the hero's health is fully depleted, they are eliminated and will be put out of the game until the next respawn. In the HUD, health is shown in the lower-left corner, next to the hero's portrait, on a health bar. The health bar is divided into 25-health increments. In addition to regular health, heroes may have other type of health, such as armor and shield. Order of priority for damage inflicting When taking damage, the order of damage priority will follow the rule: * Health type which is on the right most of the health bar will receive damage first. * After one type of health is depleted, the left one will be the next to receive damage. * The left most of the health bar will receive damage last. Thus in detail, the order of damage priority is: * Temporary shield (from Lúcio's Sound Barrier or Doomfist's The Best Defense…). * Innate shield. * Temporary armor (from Brigitte's Repair Pack or Torbjörn's Overload). * Permanent armor (a hero's innate armor or armor added by Brigitte's Rally). * Regular health. Temporary shield will be the first to be damaged, and when all protection is gone, the last one to get damaged is regular health. Health types Regular health Represented on the health bar by white increments, the regular health is the last to be damaged. It does not have any special characteristic. Health cannot be generated by itself (except for Mercy, who can regenerate health at a rate of 20 HP/s after not taking damage for 1 second) and it can only be refilled by healing. All heroes have regular health. Only Winston can increase his maximum regular health by 500 HP temporarily by activating his Primal Rage. Armor Represented on the health bar by yellow increments, armor will block a certain amount of damage for every shot it takes. Armor will block 5 damage from every individual hit that deals 10 damage or more. Hits that deal less than 10 damage will be halved their damage instead. The exception to this damage resistance is Molten Core; the ability's damage pools do 190 damage per second against armored targets, up from 130 damage per second against all other types of HP. This only applies to armor; any type of HP that comes before it (shield, temporary shield) will not gain the resistance. This means that armor is especially effective against rapid fire weapons and shotguns, both of which deal damage by firing many low-damage hits in succession or multiple low-damage pellets in one shot. In like manner, armor is ineffective against weapons that inflict a huge amount of damage in one shot, for example: sniper shots, rocket launcher, etc. Armor normally maintains a heavy metallic aesthetic throughout the game. Shots which hit armor will generate sparks instead of a blood splatter. Bastion, Brigitte, D.Va (in mech), Orisa, Reinhardt, Winston, and Wrecking Ball all have innate armor. Temporary armor While innate armor is represented by yellow health ticks, temporary added armor is represented by orange markers. Its function is identical to normal armor, except only innate armor can be healed; as the name suggests, temporary armor cannot be healed but can be replenished by reacquiring it through abilities or allies. Currently, there are two ways to gain temporary armor, both through abilities used by Torbjörn and Brigitte: *Torbjörn's Overload ability grants him 150 temporary armor. While it can be healed like innate armor, it is removed from his health bar once the 5-second ability ends. *Brigitte's Repair Pack grants up to 75 temporary armor through overheal. The armor dissipates after 5 seconds, and cannot be restored through healing. *Brigitte's Rally ultimate gives players a maximum of 100 temporary armor. Like Torbjörn's Armor Packs there is no time limit on the armor, but it cannot be restored with healing. Prior to Patch 1.29, Torbjörn's Armor Pack drops would grant any hero 75 temporary armor. The armor had no time limit and could only be replenished by another Armor Pack. Shield Represented by light blue increments, shield has the same characteristic as regular health. However, shield will regenerate at a rate of 20 per second after 3 seconds of taking no damage. Shield can be self healed, and it can also generate itself while being healed. Shield maintains a light blue "force field" aesthetic (as commonly portrayed in science fiction); it is presumed that energy is required to create and maintain this form of shield. A structure composing of light blue transparent hexagons will cover the heroes who receive additional shield. Shots which hit shields will generate small hexagonal pieces instead of a blood splatter. When shield is depleted, a breaking effect along with a cracking sound will be generated. Sigma, Symmetra, Zarya, and Zenyatta have innate Shield. Symmetra's ultimate prior to Patch 1.25, Shield Generator, could provide 75 additional shields to any friendly hero within a 50-metre radius. (Shield Generator was removed in patch 1.25 and replaced with Photon Barrier.) Temporary shield under the effect of Lúcio's Sound Barrier, showing the decaying health.]] Represented by dark blue increments, temporary shield has the same characteristics as regular health, but is not in a hero's default HP pool; it must be added onto a hero's HP via an ability. Whereas regular shield regenerates after a period of time, temporary shield either constantly decays or dissipates after a set time period, and cannot be healed by any means other than the ability which granted it. The following abilities grant temporary shield: *Doomfist's The Best Defense... builds up temporary shield to a maximum of 150 additional HP when he does damage to enemies with his abilities, and decays at a slow rate of 3 HP per second. *Lúcio's Sound Barrier grants heroes 750 temporary shield which decays rapidly at a rate of 125 HP per second, causing the temporary shield to last 6 seconds max. It is called "personal shield" in the ability's official description. *Sigma's Kinetic Grasp builds up temporary shield up to a maximum of 400 HP when he absorbs damage from the enemy's projectile and hitscan attacks, and decays at a rate of 7 HP per second. *Wrecking Ball's Adaptive Shield grants him 100 temporary shield upon use, which increases by 100 for every enemy nearby when the ability is cast. Rather than decaying, these shields dissipate entirely after 7 seconds. Barrier Barrier is not included in the hero's health bar and cannot be healed by any external source. Brigitte, Winston, Reinhardt, Orisa, Symmetra, and Sigma can provide physical blue barriers that soak up certain amounts of damage before being destroyed. Zarya can momentarily provide both herself and her teammates with a different type of barrier that, when attacked, soak up damage and increase the Energy level of her cannon. Healing abilities Some heroes' abilities can heal other teammates or themselves, consisting of: Support heroes * Ana's Biotic Rifle can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 75 HP per hit. ** Biotic Grenade can be used to heal multiple teammates (including herself) within its range by 100 HP and increase all affected allies' healing from any source by 50% for 4 seconds. Biotic Grenade is currently the only ability in the game that nullifies all enemy healing - including health pack pickups. ** Nano Boost can instantly heal the target for 250 HP. * Baptiste's Biotic Launcher's secondary fire can be used to heal multiple allies at a rate of 60 HP per splash. ** Regenerative Burst can also heal multiple allies at a rate of 30 HP per second over five seconds (150 HP max). ** Immortality Field, although meant to keep allies health from dropping below 20%, can also heal all allies up to that extent if they were originally below that threshold. ** Amplification Matrix can double the output of all healing projectiles from him and his allies. * Brigitte's Repair Pack will heal up to 120 HP over two seconds, with any overheal converting into a maximum of 75 armor (which lasts for 5 seconds). ** Inspire ability heals 21.6 HP/sec (10.83 HP/sec on self) over 6 seconds within a 20-meter radius, allowing her to potentially heal a total of 130 HP to each ally when she lands a hit with her Rocket Flail. * Lúcio's Crossfade: Heal can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 16.25 HP/sec and himself at the rate of 13 HP/sec, or at the rate of 46.8 HP/sec and 37.5 HP/sec respectively when boosted by Amp It Up. * Mercy's Caduceus Staff can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 50 HP/sec(60 HP/sec while in Valkyrie). ** Regeneration also lets her regain 20 HP/sec after 1 second of taking no damage or constantly if Valkyrie is active. ** Mercy is the only hero in the game who can resurrect players from 0 health with her ability Resurrect. * Moira's Biotic Grasp (primary fire) can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 80 HP/sec. ** Biotic Orb can be used to heal multiple teammates (including herself) within its range up to a collective total of 300 HP at the rate of 75 HP/sec. ** Coalescence can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 140 HP/sec. ** Biotic Grasp (secondary fire) and Coalescence can be used to heal herself whenever she damages enemies (20 HP/sec and 50 HP/sec respectively). * Zenyatta's Orb of Harmony can be used to heal other teammates at the rate of 30 HP/sec. ** Zenyatta's Transcendence can be used to instantly refill his own Health, give him temporary invulnerability, and heal other teammates at the rate of 300 HP/sec - the fastest and most powerful heal presently in the game. Other heroes * Bastion's Self-Repair can be used to heal itself at the rate of 70 HP/sec at a maximum of 300 HP in a continuous use. * Mei's Cryo-Freeze can be used to heal herself at the rate of 37.5 HP/sec at a maximum of 150 HP per use. * Soldier: 76's Biotic Field can be used to heal other teammates and himself within its range at the rate of 40 HP/sec at a maximum of 200 HP per use. It is the only ability not used by a support hero to heal teammates. * Sombra can hack a Health Pack, decreasing its cooldown and denying enemy usage. * Reaper's The Reaping will heal himself for 50% of the damage done to enemy heroes. * Roadhog's Take A Breather can be used to heal himself at the rate of 300 HP/sec at a maximum of 300 HP per use. * Tracer's Recall can be used to regain all Health lost in the last 3 seconds. * Torbjörn's Molten Core can be used to give himself temporary innate Armor, and heal his turret to full health. * Winston's Primal Rage can be used to regain all Health lost before the ablity's activation, and increase his regular health by 500 HP. ** Winston's Primal Rage is the only hero ability in the game that adds to a hero's maximum health pool. Environmental healing ]] In addition to a hero's abilities, health may be restored through features on the map, including: *Small Health Packs (75 HP; 10-second respawn time by default) **Its respawn time will be reduced to 25% of its original time (2.5 seconds by default) when hacked by Sombra. *Large Health Packs (250 HP; 15-second respawn time by default) **Its respawn time will be reduced to 25% of its original time (3.75 seconds by default) when hacked by Sombra. *Payloads (10 HP/sec) *Spawn Rooms (400 HP/sec) **Heroes cannot take damage from any source (including themselves) in a spawn room. Comparisons Trivia * The health bars of enemies will be visible after the player inflicted damage to them, and will be invisible again after 5 seconds have passed. * The ceiling of HP in the entire game can only be achieved by Wrecking Ball while 6 enemies are within range of his Adaptive Shield. He requires teammates of Brigitte and Lúcio, and can achieve 2225 HP for one server tick (due to the rapid decay of Sound Barrier). Patch Changes * * * * }} Category:Game Mechanics